An ECF Study On Chinese "A Yi Quantifier, B Yi Quantifier" Construction

Symmetry is one of the most essential principles in nature. As a product ofhuman cognitive processing on the basis of reality, language inevitably carries on theimprint of objective world. As Liu Xie once mentioned in his Carving a Dragon atthe Core Heart of Literature,“Nature endows all living beings with paired limbs；Divine reason lets nothing stand alone.” Symmetry in nature breeds symmetricalstructures in language. There are various kinds of symmetrical structures in the longhistory of Chinese, one of which is a very special subtype coined as contrastivelypaired structure(or Duiju structure in Chinese Pinyin). In recent years, with its richproductivity and high frequency, a subtype of contrastively paired structure “A yiquantifier, B yi quantifier” structure has sparked theoretical interests amongnumerous scholars. Within this topic, papers can be seen from different perspective,among which valuable findings have been made in the classification and structural,semantic, pragmatic characteristics of this structure, yet deep and systematic researchunder the framework of cognitive linguistics and cognitive construction grammar israre, not to mention some statistical evidence. The untouched cognitive mechanismbehind the iceberg of “A yi quantifier, B yi quantifier” structure has left much spacefor this paper.According to the classification of construction proposed by Goldberg (2006),“A yi quantifier, B yi quantifier” structure can be placed on the6thkind ofconstruction called partially filled idiom construction, with the numeral word “yi” asits fixed part,“A”,“B” and quantifiers as its variables. In form, the whole of “A yiquantifier, B yi quantifier” construction is the sum of component construction1“A yiquantifier” and component construction2“B yi quantifier”, but in meaning aspect, thewhole is more than the sum of its components. On the basis of cognitive linguisticsand construction grammar, we propose an ECF model which is the integration ofFigure&Ground Theory, Conceptual Blending Theory and Event-domain Cognitive Model, to extend a thorough and systematic research on the cognitive mechanismbehind the iceberg of “A yi quantifier, B yi quantifier” construction. Besidesqualitative study, quantitative analysis will be used in this paper, with504sententialitems exhaustively collected from CCL as the closed corpus. Thus, the syntactic,semantic and pragmatic features of “A yi quantifier, B yi quantifier” constructionwill be discussed in detail with proper statistical support.This paper falls into five chapters with its main content as follows:Chapter One is the introduction part, including research motivation, researchobjectives, data collection, research methodology and the layout of this paper.Chapter Two reviews the previous studies on Chinese Duiju construction and“A yi quantifier, B yi quantifier” construction from different perspective. Finallyresearch gap left by precious studies will be pointed out in this chapter.Chapter Three establishes a new cognitive model ECF as the theoreticalframework, which is the integration of Figure&Ground Theory, ConceptualBlending Theory and Event-domain cognitive Model, to explore the formationmechanism of “A yi quantifier, B yi quantifier” construction. In the end a case studywill be made under the new cognitive model.Chapter Four is Data Analysis and Discussion. On the basis of data description,with the help of ECF model, the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features will bediscussed in detail with proper data support.Chapter Five gives a conclusion of the whole paper with major findings andcontributions as follows:1. It is the first time that the backstage cognitive mechanism of Chinese “A yiquantifier, B yi quantifier” construction been explored under the newly establishedECF model integrated by ECM, F&G and Conceptual Blending.2. Through careful and item-by-item counting, data support is provided for thispaper on the following aspects: the distribution of its constructional meanings, theratio of semantic relation between A\B, the distribution of its syntactic functions and the percentage of A/B being nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs,3. Three types of constructional meanings have been explored. With the help ofdata analysis, we find its constructional meaning to form a hierarchy: Increment(80.3%)> Constant (16.3%)> Metaphoricity (3.4%). The main cognitive mechanismin the formation of its meaning can be concluded as integration. Our researchprovides a further evidence that integration as an invisible cognitive tool is a crucialcomplementary to the one-dimensionality of language while using it to represent themulti-dimensionality of the objective world.4. We find that construction “A yi quantifier, B yi quantifier” hascharacteristics of inward instability, inconsistency and outward non-gradability,which are in high conformity with traditional Chinese thinking of “two-become-one”and “unity of opposites”.Finally, some shortcomings and limitations in this paper will be pointed out inhope to give suggestions for further research on the related topic.